


Fireworks

by anothercrazymom



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Dead People In Backstory, Fireworks, Fluff and Angst, Gen, More Sad Than Fluffy, Next-Gen Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:59:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothercrazymom/pseuds/anothercrazymom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince Xav Vorbarra always wanted fireworks on his birthday.  He didn't take into account the cost...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireworks

Emperor Xav Aral Vorbarra escaped the celebration onto the west facing balcony and looked out over the city of Vorbarra Sultana.  He could hear the party continuing without him.  The music was happy and people were dancing.  

It was nearing midnight.  The stars shone brightly in the sky.  It would be his birthday in less than ten minutes and for the first time there would be fireworks on his birthday.  As a child he had envied the fireworks on his father’s birthday and wished that he would have had fireworks on his birthday too.  Today he wished the fireworks had never come.

“I can’t wait for the fireworks to start!” exclaimed his young son, bouncing on his feet and eagerly munching on a cream puff.

“Me neither!” excitedly added his sister, also holding on to a cream puff.  “I wish I got fireworks for my birthday!”

Xav smiled through wet eyes and looked at them.  He would gladly give the show back for another year if only...  

He watched as the children scurried back into the ballroom and the cream puffs that were inside.

“I wonder if Mama will let us have another cream puff,” he heard as they entered the ballroom and their voices were drowned out by the music.

“We wondered where you were, Sire,” said his best friend and closest confidant Count Aral Vorkosigan as he approached the balcony and looked over the city.

“I didn’t wonder,” said Lady Helen Vorkosigan.  “This is the best spot for viewing the fireworks in the whole city.  I knew where to find him.”

“Do you remember when we found this spot and snuck up here to hide behind our parents to watch from here?” asked Aral with a twinkle in his eye.

Xav smiled, “Of course.”

Aral added, “They spotted us pretty quickly.”

“Father was obsessive about keeping track of us.  I doubt that security ever didn’t know where we were,” replied Xav.

“But once we were here they didn’t tell us to leave,” continued Aral.

“We froze that one year, the year with the early snowfall,” added Helen with a shiver.

“And then roasted the following year when there was a massive heat wave,” added Aral panting.

“And I missed out on all the fun,” inserted Empress Jessa Vorbarra as she walked in through the doors to the balcony.  

Xav reached out to his wife, “I would have invited you if I had known you at the time.”

“I know, dear,” she replied with a smile.

They looked out over the city together.  

“Xav,” a woman’s voice broke the silence.  “He wouldn’t have wanted you to be sad on your birthday.”

Xav turned to look at his mother.  “I know, Mama.  I just miss him.  I didn’t know how much I would miss him until he wasn’t here and now I can’t tell him.”

“He knew, Xav.  He always knew.  He loved being a father.  He loved being the father he didn’t have,” said Laisa.

The sound of muffled booms directed everyone’s attention back out into the night.  The fireworks blossomed into starbursts of color.  Red and blue lights flashed, followed quickly by green and yellow ones, and then more and until the sky was lit as bright as day.

Xav watched the fireworks as tears slowly ran down his cheeks.


End file.
